Here, for your reading pleasure, is the draft, as of today, of the entire Democratic Party’s Platform.
Besides the trade language, here are my initial thoughts about some of the other economic-related language.
The good:
There is very strong language about the right to organize and other similar worker protection issues. And it is quite good that the language is inserted under the heading "Good Jobs With Good Pay:
That is why we support the right to organize. We know that when unions are allowed to do their job of making sure that workers get their fair share, they pull people out of poverty and create a stronger middle class. We will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions and fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We will restore pro-worker voices to the National Labor Relations Board and the National Mediation Board and we support overturning the NLRB’s and NMB’s many harmful decisions that undermine the collective bargaining rights of millions of workers. We will ensure that federal employees, including public safety officers who put their lives on the line every day have the right to bargain collectively, and we will fix the broken bargaining process at the Federal Aviation Administration. We will fight to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so that workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods. We will continue to vigorously oppose “Right-to-Work” Laws and “paycheck protection” efforts whenever they are proposed.
The platform also attacks the Bush Administration for suspending Davis-Bacon provision, and other unfriendly worker acts:
Suspending labor protections during national emergencies compounds the devastation from the emergency. We opposed suspension of Davis-Bacon following Hurricane Katrina, and we support broad application of Davis-Bacon worker protections to all federal projects. We will stop the abuse of privatization of government jobs. We will end the exploitative practice of employers wrongly misclassifying workers as independent contractors.
The Bush Administration Department of Labor has failed in its obligation to stand up and protect American workers. Our Department of Labor will restore and expand overtime rights for millions of Americans, and will actively enforce wage and hour laws. Our Occupational Safety and Health Administration will adopt and enforce comprehensive safety standards; he Bush Administration is the only administration that has never voluntarily issued a significant final standard for workplace safety. Right now, far too many workers-especially those in the construction and mining industries-risk their lives every day just by going to work.
One of the greatest sentences in the platform is this one (on page 22):
We recognize that Social Security is not in crisis and we should do everything we can to strengthen this vital program, including asking those making over $250,000 to pay a bit more.
Finally, the first step in defeating the idiotic repeated theme by the media, politicians and elites that Social Security is in crisis. IT ISN’T. I consider that sentence to be a huge victory–if we can now get people to repeat it.
My biggest gripe, besides what I wrote previously about trade, is the health care section. In the Fiscal Responsibility section, the platform clearly states that:
Instead, we must strengthen our public programs by bringing down the cost of health care and reducing waste while making strategic investments that emphasize quality, efficiency, and prevention.
And, yet, if you go back to the long section devoted to health care, the platform calls for an "affordable, comprehensive alternative"–yet does not make a call for single-payer, "Medicare For All". This is going to be a tough fight, in my opinion. The words "universal coverage" and "affordable" are all in the eye of the beholder. And the langauge is being shaped now to convince people that we can truly get real health care for people with the involvement of the private insurance industry. That is a lie.
